How To Install policykit-desktop-privileges on Ubuntu 20.04

In this tutorial we learn how to install policykit-desktop-privileges on Ubuntu 20.04. policykit-desktop-privileges is run common desktop actions without password

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install policykit-desktop-privileges on Ubuntu 20.04.

What is policykit-desktop-privileges

policykit-desktop-privileges is:

This package provides a set of PolicyKit privileges which allow Administrators to run common actions without being asked for their password:

  • mounting and checking internal disk drives (through udisks)
  • setting the CPU speed and policy (through the GNOME CPU frequency applet)
  • setting the time and timezone (through the GNOME clock applet or through KDE)
  • Adding/changing system-wide NetworkManager connections
  • Update already installed software
  • Configure printers

It does not change privileges for non-Administrators (users who are not in the “admin” or “sudo” group). So this satisfies the typical desktop/laptop use case where the user has full control over the hardware anyway.

This is implemented by shipping a pklocalauthority(8) file. Task: ubuntu-desktop-minimal, ubuntu-desktop, kubuntu-desktop, xubuntu-core, xubuntu-desktop, lubuntu-desktop, ubuntustudio-desktop-core, ubuntustudio-desktop, ubuntukylin-desktop, ubuntu-mate-core, ubuntu-mate-desktop, ubuntu-budgie-desktop

There are three methods to install policykit-desktop-privileges on Ubuntu 20.04. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install policykit-desktop-privileges Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install policykit-desktop-privileges using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install policykit-desktop-privileges

Install policykit-desktop-privileges Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install policykit-desktop-privileges using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install policykit-desktop-privileges

Install policykit-desktop-privileges Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install policykit-desktop-privileges using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install policykit-desktop-privileges

How To Uninstall policykit-desktop-privileges on Ubuntu 20.04

To uninstall only the policykit-desktop-privileges package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove policykit-desktop-privileges

Uninstall policykit-desktop-privileges And Its Dependencies

To uninstall policykit-desktop-privileges and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 20.04, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove policykit-desktop-privileges

Remove policykit-desktop-privileges Configurations and Data

To remove policykit-desktop-privileges configuration and data from Ubuntu 20.04 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge policykit-desktop-privileges

Remove policykit-desktop-privileges configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove policykit-desktop-privileges configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge policykit-desktop-privileges

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install policykit-desktop-privileges package on Ubuntu 20.04 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.